—- USS Andromeda, Main Conference Room —-

The senior crew, largely transferred from the USS Selene, entered the conference room. They’d each had a day to grapple with their new assignment aboard the USS Andromeda and an Andromeda-class starship a redux of the classic and famed Galaxy-class.

Also in attendance was Ambassador T’Venik, assigned to the ship from the Federation. She took a seat beside the ship’s Chief Diplomatic Officer Lieutenant Commander Diya Acharya. Taking the seat at the head of the table was Captain Olivia Carrillo who had spent most of the past day bringing in civilians to serve in various support roles on the ship from manning lounges to a few barbers and hair dressers. With an official crew count of over one thousand officers, the intention was to make serving aboard the USS Andromeda like serving on a starbase or planetary outpost.

Carrillo took her seat and smiled at her crew, most she knew well and considered friends. Aside from T’Venik the only other new face was her first officer Commander Kan Th’kaotross the Andorian officer.

“Alright, welcome everyone,” Carrillo said, kicking off the meeting, “we’re departing in two days, so let’s get a run down of all the departments and confirmation that we’re on track. So let’s begin with medical. T’Rala, how are things?”

The Romulan Chief Medical Officer nodded, bringing up a schematic of the ship’s expansive sickbay, enlarged from the Galaxy-class and far larger than the Lamarr-class that they had last served on.

“The medical bay came stocked with supplies, the ship’s previous missions didn’t call on the medical staff that much so not a lot to replenish. We’ve got a few doctors transferring in,” the Romulan said nodding, “This will be the most extensive medical bay most of us have served on. Outside of a specifically medical ship or an Odyssey-class we’ll have more specialties onboard than we’re used to.”

Glancing down at her PADD then back up Doctor T’Rala added, “We’ll be ready to go when the Andromeda ships out.”

“Perfect,” the captain said. Pivoting she glanced at the yellow clad operations chief, “Tashai how are we going?”

The woman nodded, “Everything is assigned and ready to go. While it’s a large crew we still have VIP quarters and enough for taking on a significant number of delegates during any diplomatic missions. We have lots of recreational facilities, and everything is modern, up-to-date,  and in working order. I know you’ve been working on bringing in a civilian crew. We also brought in an elementary school teacher, as we have six children between the ages of six to twelve. Older than that it’s mainly the cadet class from the Selene and I’ve assigned two classrooms and a holosuite to their instructors. But short story,  we’re ready to ship out.”

One by one the remainder of the section chiefs sounded off similarly. The Andromeda had not seen combat or any strenuous service and had mostly been doing publicity and show the flag missions. While not the flagship of the fleet, it was a popular design due to the legacy of the Enterprise D and the Galaxy-class. The Enterprise’s recent adventure taking the Borg on Frontier Day had caused interest in the Galaxy-class and Starfleet’s modern take on the design to be even more popular than anticipated.

“Engineering?” Carrillo said turning her attention to Commander James Young, the chief engineering officer.

“Everything’s good, except the metaphasic shielding. We’ll be ready to go but I’m just trying to get those online, but since we’re not on a tactical assignment to start with it won’t prevent us from departing,” Young said.

“I don’t love leaving dock with temperamental shields,” Carrillo observed.

Young nodded, “I know, we’ll just work on them. Metaphasic shielding is still relatively new. This is most of our first ship with the design.”

—- USS Andromeda, Main Bridge —-

As Starbase 86 shrank from view behind them the crew of the Andromeda worked at piloting far enough from dock to engage warp and head towards the Triangle.

The bride was laid out similar to a Galaxy-class with flight control and operations stations at the front of the bridge, a ring of five chairs for the captain and her advisors in the centre of the bridge and then a control bar of tactical stations behind them, at the sides and back of the bridge were stations for other sections.

“Commander Young wanted us to run at warp 9.99 for ten hours to break in the engines and then drop to warp five for any work we might need to do on them,” reported Lieutenant Commander Tashai at the ops station.

Captain Carrillo nodded, “Alright Pr’Nor you hear that? Take us to warp 9.99 as soon as we’re clear of all station traffic.”

“Understood,” the Vulcan Chief Flight Control Officer said from her control station. She guided the large ship into open space and then set in their destination, “Entering warp.”

The static field of stars on the main viewscreen dissolved into a swarm of at motion stars as the ship engaged and began to streak across the system. Carrillo watched it for a moment, then stood straightening her uniform and nodded, “Okay, I’m going to go work on designing my ready room. Mister Th’kaotross you have the bridge.”

The Andorian nodded then moved over to the center chair as the captain left the bridge.

It was several hours later that Carrillo was summoned to the bridge, she entered to find a static filled communication playing.

“What do we have?” she asked.

Th’kaotross nodded at the screen, “A border colony has been attacked. It looks like pirates in the same stolen Klingon vessels that disabled the USS Falcon.”

“The USS Majestic?” Carrillo asked, meaning the flag vessel of the Task Force and the Sovereign-class ship that tended to be the most tactically capable in the region.

“Already in the Triangle, too far to respond in time,” Th’kaotross said, “We’re the closest Starfleet ship. The USS West Covina is enroute but won’t arrive in time.”

“They’re also a California-class and a medical ship,” Carrillo said, “Alright, let Ambassador T’Venik know we’re taking a side trip, let Commander Young know he’s got a few hours on that shield. But I need it up. Full warp take us to the colony.”

The USS Andromeda banked slightly as its course altered, heading towards the two stolen Klingon Mat’Ha-class ships and the planet they had under siege.